With ISIS on the warpath, driving families from their homes, the Arabs firing rockets into Israel and Israel returning fire, people in the Middle East are suffering tremendously. Many of these people don’t know what it’s like to live without fear.
- Fear of rockets flying by.
- Fear of bombs exploding around them.
- Fear for their safety.
- Fear that a loved one will be killed.
They struggle to find food and clean drinking water. Their children are at risk of dying from disease, malnutrition, or war. In Arab countries, fear and death are part of life. But worst of all, these people are born and live and die in spiritual darkness. They don’t know Jesus. They don’t know the way of salvation. And they have no hope of eternal life. They very often live an impoverished life, die a horrible death, and go out into a Christ-less eternity where they will be forever separated from God in the lake of fire.
As I watch the horrors of it all on my television screen, I realize that it was only by the grace and mercy of God that I live in America and have easy access to the Truth and God’s Word. I could have been born in a different time or a different country. I could have been born to abusive parents or in a communist country or culture that bans the Bible and forbids the preaching of the Gospel. But I wasn’t. I was born in the United States of America to loving and caring parents. And even though I was raised in a non-Christian home, I heard the gospel at a young age and accepted Jesus as my Savior.
In Luke 12:48, Jesus said, “…For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”
In America, we’ve been given much – much freedom, much education, many resources, many opportunities, and the Gospel has been preached from coast to coast throughout the history of our nation. Despite the spiritual darkness that seems to be invading our land, Americans still have access to the Light. God has blessed us with much, so He will require much from us in return.